shooting at Skrappy's

Granted, I'm giving you bits and pieces, but better to have some eyewitness reports than just speculate all night...

According to a blogger, "A fight at skrappy's leading to a shooting, leading to a full block of 5th avenue being sectioned off with 'police line' tape along with the Skrappy's parking lot and handfuls of cop cars, fire trucks, ambulances surrounding the area, and a helicopter shining it's light all over downtown and some guy who being taken into an ambulance on a stretcher with a paramedic performing CPR on the spot as the stretcher was loaded onto the ambulance and much more confusion. I;m not entirely sure all of what happened to be honest."


From: SKRAPPY'S

Date: Dec 7, 2005 10:18 PM
Subject: Regarding Tonight.
Body: What you have heard on the news is correct. There was a fight that resulted in guns and shots and a loss of a life. I and Skrappys apologize for all who had encountered this traumatizing situation. My personal prayers go out to anyone who saw or heard.

All I can ask is that you support Kathy and Skrappys, because we had nothing to do with the situation tonight. Pray for us, seriously, we could use some prayers.

Updates will be given when we find out more.

Doozer and Skrappys

PLEASE PRAY FOR SKRAPPYS.

Another blog:

So, donnybrook was playing their last song and they told everyone to move and start dancing so my friends in on my honor run in and like 5 guys from FSU didnt want tucson kids dancing, so they beat the shit out of him.
So these guys from tucson (names removed) jump in to get them off, and (name removed) got his head split open and everyone was fucking eachother up.

Then the lady that owns skrappys got on stage and said thats it the shows over and FSU was like get off stage you fat bitch blah blah, started throwing the speakers on the floor and shit and then said everybody clear the fuck out we've got a machine gun blah blah, so everyone runs outside.
Someone from FSU(some people are saying it was the lead singer of shattered realm but idk) chased (name removed) to his car, (name removed) got in and the FSU guy broke his car window open with a machetti and said "you know youre fucking dead right?" and (no name) pushed his gun up and shot the guy fired 4 shots.

So everyone in skrappys is in lockdown and they arent letting anyone leave and like, all the FSU guys are staring down the tucson kids talking shit.

And the lead singer of black my heart was talking to my friend (no name)(who witnessed fucking everything) and said he better not say shit to the cops and that if he opens his mouth he's fucked too. "

http://www.azstarnet...etro/106047.php

More info coming in at AZPUNK.

I'm a bit disappointed that there's not more discussion about this here... this affects all of us.

I'll pitch in -- briefly, maybe more later. It's been over 5 yrs now since I lived in tucson, and I've only been involved in the music scene there on a very limited basis since. SO, I don't know much about the specific setting/background of this crazy situation.

I do know that it's a good thing that it's getting some attention -- Brodie, we're reading, if not contributing much -- but Tucson media, people in general have a record of keeping their heads in the sand about violence in that town. It doesn't match the image of what the perception they want to portray... so usually it's not reported on or discussed much. my brother was nearly killed in an aggrevated assault near the UA a couple years ago; no mention in the local papers and they wouldn't run my letters-to-the-editor.... the student paper was an exception and did a good story about the whole event. Still, mostly it's hush-hush about these sorts of happenings.

I guess my point is that it's good that it's got everyone's attention and hopefully folks can talk through things. maybe learn something, but who knows. crazy shit can happen anywhere, just about anytime. all for now.

ironic. from what i understand, skrappys got its funding by using the rhetoric that it would prevent a colombine type incident in Tucson.

skrappys will probably get fucked, but under the circumstances, that seems like such a minor detail.

i don't really understand what this is about or what happened. what are the ages of these people involved? what kinds of bands are these? has the shooter been detained? why is this kid dead? it really doesn't make any sense.

kind of puts a whole new spin on "what phoenix can do." Number one: don't shoot anyone.

These were hardcore bands, and I believe (this is a total rough estimate) that the kids there ranged from 14 to 25. I think the actual shooter and victim are in their early-to-mid 20s.

This an especially hot topic on the AZPUNK board, because friends of the shooter and the victim, and fellow members of their "crews," are active posters on the board, so people a lot closer to the situation are reporting the grisly details of what happened.

I knew there would be people on here would take notice of the situation, but I'm also presuming there will be some who think that this has nothing to do with "us" (i.e. Shizzites), because our art rock/emo/indie/rock n' roll shows are totally peaceful. I've never seen as much as even a fist fight at a show on Grand Avenue.

However, even if you take away the humanity and tragedy of this situation, there is a very pragmatic reason as to why this will affect what we're trying to accomplish here.

I want to speak from a completely selfish point of view, just for a moment. Putting aside the tragedy, the humanity of this situation... for those of you saying, "So what?" Let me appeal to you in pragmatic terms. I'm borrowing from a discussion on AZPUNK where a lot of people were saying (to very broadly paraphrase), "Who cares? This has nothing to do with shows. Violence happens everywhere, this shouldn't affect the scene at all."

As I wrote elsewhere:

You have people like Tyler King, who goes out of his ways to put on and promote good shows, and put a good face on the scene. Besides the 4 HATE 0 cover story, he was also recently quoted in the New Times in this article:

"[The kids] aren't the cool kids at school. [At Neckbeard's] they become the cool kids. Suddenly it gives them a self-worth and a reason to go out and really create their own identities. Any parent's going to be happy with that."

I has this quote in my head as I was driving to work today, and I thought how genius it was to plant this seed. Tyler knows, as a parent himself, that the safety of one's children is a priority above all else. He's putting a good face on this scene (not a facade... it's an honest face).

Now? When parents read about what happened in Tucson, do you think they're going to be so quick to let their kids go to the show?

Again, to be a selfish asshole for a moment, just for the sake of those who say "so what"... I'm a promoter, too. And I'm a performer. And now I have to worry about less people coming to MY shows because a parent doesn't know the difference between a silly art rock show at the Cone Gallery and a hardcore show at Neckbeard's.

When, in reality, they shouldn't have to worry about EITHER. They should feel safe letting their kids go to silly art rock shows OR hardcore shows.

So, as a pre-emptive strike, let me say that this would be my same argument for anyone on this board who isn't responding because they think this has nothing to do with "us."

kind of puts a whole new spin on "what phoenix can do." Number one: don't shoot anyone.

That may be in "bad taste"... but, yeah, I wasn't thinking anything much different.

i don't really know what to say about this. at all.

except that it's a tragedy, and i really don't understand people sometimes.

it's pretty crazy, and with the press these "crews" have been getting lately, this could have very harmful effects on shows, definately in tucson, but also in phoenix. i wouldnt be shocked to so cops at more shows, and since they don't know the difference between hardcore and whatever else, i'd expect them to show up everywhere. now, i'm talking about grand ave, cause there are no hardcore shows there. but places like the clubhouse and marquee, places that do hardcore shows will probably see some changes because of this.

i have to say, before this happened, i never really understand what the kids were trying to do with these crews. maybe i'm just an old bastard, whatever. also, i really liked scrappys the few times ive been there. i hope it doesn't get fucked from this, but it probably will. sounds like this is something that could have happened at the rock, not scrappys

what is FSU guys?

FUCK SHIT UP

or... FRIENDS STAND UNITED.

Yeah, the kid safety thing is what bothers me. One of the professors where I work once grilled me like a ground beef patty when she found out I was in a band and played somewhat regularly at Modifed. Her daughter was going to shows there often, and was worried about the daughter's safety. I assured her that there weren't any safety issues, but the harcore kids seem to want to change that. Remember when that girl got kicked in the head at the hardcore show earlier this year? Why does hardcore have to equal violence? Where's the fun in that?

As long as you have a punk-ass with a gun who intends to commit murder there's nothing anyone can do short of submitting to a constant police state.

but WHY was there a punk ass with a gun? for those that have been, i don't think anything like this has ever happened at the smell, which i would find comparable to skrappys, in a crazier city, in a crazier part of town. brodie's saying that this effects us, and it does, but have any of ever gone to a show with a loaded gun? or unloaded for that matter?

i don't want to come off as insensitive. this is absolutely abominable. i just don't understand.